BAY CITY, MI — A Saginaw man is heading to prison for choking his girlfriend outside her Bay City home, a crime witnessed by several people.

Bay County Circuit Judge Harry P. Gill on Tuesday, Sept. 3, sentenced Albert J. Burton, 36, to 14 months to six years in prison, with credit for 140 days served. Two days later, Gill increased the sentence to 90 months, the maximum allowed per Burton's sentencing guidelines.

Burton in August pleaded no contest to single counts of assault by strangulation, a 10-year felony, and misdemeanor domestic violence. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed a second count of assault by strangulation and agreed not to seek an habitual offender sentencing enhancement. They also dismissed two unrelated counts of domestic violence and single counts of assault and battery and malicious destruction of property less than $200.

The charges to which Burton pleaded stem from an April 16 incident. On that day, police officers responded to a complaint of a man and woman fighting in the area of Sixth and Farragut streets on the city’s East Side. Arriving on the scene, the officers saw Burton walking along Farragut, holding a child’s car seat and accompanied by his 2-year-old daughter.

Burton told officers he had been in an argument with his 30-year-old girlfriend, Lisa L. Reinhardt. He said Reinhardt had pushed him, and he was walking away from her residence as a result, court records show. Burton denied touching Reinhardt.

Police went to Reinhardt’s home, and she told them she had grabbed his cellphone and locked herself in a bathroom to see who he had been calling, she told police.

Reinhardt alleged Burton kicked open the bathroom door, flung her into a bathtub and began slamming her head against the tub and the toilet. The assault ended when Burton retrieved his phone and said he was leaving, she alleged.

Reinhardt ran from her house and started yelling for help. As a neighbor called 911, Burton and his daughter exited Reinhardt’s home and approached her car, Reinhardt told police.

Reinhardt said she approached Burton and told him he was not leaving. At that point, she said Burton threw her to the ground and began attacking her. Burton grabbed her face and throat and choked her to the point that she could not breathe, she told police.

Three witnesses told police much the same story as Reinhardt related, court records show.

“She was trying to defend herself, but there was nothing she could do,” said one of the witnesses, according to police reports contained in court documents. “He was standing over top of her and punching her. He was punching her like she was a man.”